Open Data supplied by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)

Sea-Bird SBE 37-SMP MicroCAT

The SBE 37-SMP MicroCAT is a high accuracy conductivity and temperature recorder (pressure optional) with Serial interface, internal battery, non-volatile FLASH Memory and integral Pump. The Integral Pump runs for 1 second each time the MicroCAT samples, improving the conductivity response and giving improved anti-foul protection.

Designed for moorings and other long-duration, fixed-site deployments, MicroCATs have non-corroding titanium housings rated for operation to 7000 meters or pressure sensor full scale-range. Communication with the MicroCAT is over an internal, 3-wire, RS-232C link. The MicroCAT's aged and pressure-protected thermistor has a long history of exceptional accuracy and stability (typical drift is less than 0.002°C per year). Electrical isolation of the conductivity electronics eliminates any possibility of ground-loop noise.

RAPIDMOC/MOCHA Sea-Bird MicroCAT data processing document

This document outlines the procedures undertaken to process and quality assure the MicroCAT data collected under the RAPIDMOC and MOCHA projects.

Originator's processing

The raw data are downloaded from the instrument and converted to ASCII format. All processing is performed in Matlab.

Calculating calibration coefficients

Prior to deployment and on recovery, a CTD dip is performed with the MicroCATs strapped onto the CTD frame. This allows calibration of the MicroCAT data by comparing the MicroCAT data with the CTD data. As the MicroCATs adjustment is much slower than the CTD, data are only compared during bottle stops and after the sensors have adjusted. Bottle stops on these calibration dips last no less than 5 minutes.

Any discrepancy between the MicroCAT clock and the CTD clock is calculated and corrected if necessary.

An average offset (MicroCAT - CTD) is calculated for temperature, conductivity and pressure during the stable period of each bottle stop and interpolated onto the instrument deployment depths. For temperature and conductivity, an average of the offsets derived during the bottle stops is calculated for a specified pressure range where the data are stable (deep water). For pressure, the average offset interpolated to the deployment depth is used. If the calibration dip is shallower than the deployment depth, the offset is extrapolated to the deployment depth.

All the offsets are visually checked and adjusted if necessary.

Applying calibrations

The data are calibrated using the pre and post deployment calibration coefficients. The calibration can be applied as either

A linear trend between the pre and post deployment coefficients

A constant offset using the pre deployment coefficient

A constant offset using the post deployment coefficient

A constant offset using an average of the pre and post deployment coefficients

A general linear trend using either the pre or post deployment coefficient

If required, a conductivity pressure correction can be applied. This is used if the pressure channel shows spurious data in a particular time interval. A drift in the pressure data can also be removed.

To aid the quality of the calibration, data from CTD casts performed near mooring locations on previous cruises are used as a reference and are visually compared with the MicroCAT data.

Quality control

All variables in specified time intervals can be set to dummy values if the data are suspect and it is also possible to apply an offset to a subsection of a particular channel, if required. Interactive despiking can be carried out on the temperature and conductivity data, if present, by selecting data based on a T-S plot. Automatic despiking can also be performed using the option to exclude data outside the 6σ area.

The last stage of the processing is to grid the data onto a pressure field and visually check against historical data. This enables the calibrations to be checked and adjusted if necessary. On occasion, comparison of the time series with historical data and series from nearby instruments highlights the need for removal of a drift from one or more data channels. This is accomplished by removing a linear trend from the appropriate channel(s) and may affect the entire series or a subsection thereof. If a trend has been removed it will be noted in the 'RAPIDMOC Calibration Coefficients' section of the documentation.

BODC processing

Data are received after quality checks have been made and calibrations have been applied. The data files are submitted in ASCII format as one file per instrument.

Once the submitted data files are safely archived, the data undergo reformatting and banking procedures:

Rapid Climate Change (RAPID) Programme

Rapid Climate Change (RAPID) is a £20 million, six-year (2001-2007) programme of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). The programme aims to improve our ability to quantify the probability and magnitude of future rapid change in climate, with a main (but not exclusive) focus on the role of the Atlantic Ocean's Thermohaline Circulation.

Scientific Objectives

To establish a pre-operational prototype system to continuously observe the strength and structure of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC).

To support long-term direct observations of water, heat, salt, and ice transports at critical locations in the northern North Atlantic, to quantify the atmospheric and other (e.g. river run-off, ice sheet discharge) forcing of these transports, and to perform process studies of ocean mixing at northern high latitudes.

To construct well-calibrated and time-resolved palaeo data records of past climate change, including error estimates, with a particular emphasis on the quantification of the timing and magnitude of rapid change at annual to centennial time-scales.

To develop and use high-resolution physical models to synthesise observational data.

To apply a hierarchy of modelling approaches to understand the processes that connect changes in ocean convection and its atmospheric forcing to the large-scale transports relevant to the modulation of climate.

To understand, using model experimentation and data (palaeo and present day), the atmosphere's response to large changes in Atlantic northward heat transport, in particular changes in storm tracks, storm frequency, storm strengths, and energy and moisture transports.

To use both instrumental and palaeo data for the quantitative testing of models' abilities to reproduce climate variability and rapid changes on annual to centennial time-scales. To explore the extent to which these data can provide direct information about the thermohaline circulation (THC) and other possible rapid changes in the climate system and their impact.

To quantify the probability and magnitude of potential future rapid climate change, and the uncertainties in these estimates.

Projects

Overall 38 projects have been funded by the RAPID programme. These include 4 which focus on Monitoring the Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC), and 5 international projects jointly funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, the Research Council of Norway and NERC.

The RAPID effort to design a system to continuously monitor the strength and structure of the North Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is being matched by comparative funding from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) for collaborative projects reviewed jointly with the NERC proposals. Three projects were funded by NSF.

A proportion of RAPID funding as been made available for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) as part of NERC's Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI). The SBRI aims to stimulate innovation in the economy by encouraging more high-tech small firms to start up or to develop new research capacities. As a result 4 projects have been funded.

Monitoring the Meridional Overturning Circulation at 26.5N (RAPIDMOC)

Scientific Rationale

There is a northward transport of heat throughout the Atlantic, reaching a maximum of 1.3PW (25% of the global heat flux) around 24.5°N. The heat transport is a balance of the northward flux of a warm Gulf Stream, and a southward flux of cooler thermocline and cold North Atlantic Deep Water that is known as the meridional overturning circulation (MOC). As a consequence of the MOC northwest Europe enjoys a mild climate for its latitude: however abrupt rearrangement of the Atlantic Circulation has been shown in climate models and in palaeoclimate records to be responsible for a cooling of European climate of between 5-10°C. A principal objective of the RAPID programme is the development of a pre-operational prototype system that will continuously observe the strength and structure of the MOC. An initiative has been formed to fulfill this objective and consists of three interlinked projects:

A mooring array spanning the Atlantic at 26.5°N to measure the southward branch of the MOC (Hirschi et al., 2003 and Baehr et al., 2004).

Additional moorings deployed in the western boundary along 26.5°N (by Prof. Bill Johns, University of Miami) to resolve transport in the Deep Western Boundary Current (Bryden et al., 2005). These moorings allow surface-to-bottom density profiles along the western boundary, Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and eastern boundary to be observed. As a result, the transatlantic pressure gradient can be continuously measured.

Monitoring of the northward branch of the MOC using submarine telephone cables in the Florida Straits (Baringer et al., 2001) led by Dr Molly Baringer (NOAA/AOML/PHOD).

The entire monitoring array system created by the three projects will be recovered and redeployed annually until 2008 under RAPID funding. From 2008 until 2014 the array will continue to be serviced annually under RAPID-WATCH funding.

The array will be focussed on three regions, the Eastern Boundary (EB), the Mid Atlantic Ridge (MAR) and the Western Boundary (WB). The geographical extent of these regions are as follows:

Eastern Boundary (EB) array defined as a box with the south-east corner at 23.5°N, 25.5°W and the north-west corner at 29.0°N, 12.0°W

Mid Atlantic Ridge (MAR) array defined as a box with the south-east corner at 23.0°N, 52.1°W and the north-west corner at 26.5°N, 40.0°W

Western Boundary (WB) array defined as a box with the south-east corner at 26.0°N, 77.5°W and the north-west corner at 27.5°N, 69.5°W

RAPID- Will the Atlantic Thermohaline Circulation Halt? (RAPID-WATCH)

RAPID-WATCH (2007-2014) is a continuation programme of the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) Rapid Climate Change (RAPID) programme. It aims to deliver a robust and scientifically credible assessment of the risk to the climate of UK and Europe arising from a rapid change in the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (MOC). The programme will also assess the need for a long-term observing system that could detect major MOC changes, narrow uncertainty in projections of future change, and possibly be the start of an 'early warning' prediction system.

The effort to design a system to continuously monitor the strength and structure of the North Atlantic MOC is being matched by comparative funding from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) for the existing collaborations started during RAPID for the observational arrays.

Scientific Objectives

To deliver a decade-long time series (2004-2014) of calibrated and quality-controlled measurements of the Atlantic MOC from the RAPID-WATCH arrays.

To exploit the data from the RAPID-WATCH arrays and elsewhere to determine and interpret recent changes in the Atlantic MOC, assess the risk of rapid climate change, and investigate the potential for predictions of the MOC and its impacts on climate.

This work will be carried out in collaboration with the Hadley Centre in the UK and through international partnerships.

Mooring Arrays

The RAPID-WATCH arrays are the existing 26°N MOC observing system array (RAPIDMOC) and the WAVE array that monitors the Deep Western Boundary Current. The data from these arrays will work towards meeting the first scientific objective.

The RAPIDMOC array consists of moorings focused in three geographical regions (sub-arrays) along 26.5° N: Eastern Boundary, Mid-Atlantic Ridge and Western Boundary. The Western Boundary sub-array has moorings managed by both the UK and US scientists. The other sub-arrays are solely led by the UK scientists. The lead PI is Dr Stuart Cunningham of the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK.

The WAVE array consists of one line of moorings off Halifax, Nova Scotia. The line will be serviced in partnership with the Bedford Institute of Oceanography (BIO), Halifax, Canada. The lead PI is Dr Chris Hughes of the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, Liverpool, UK.

All arrays will be serviced (recovered and redeployed) either on an annual or biennial basis using Research Vessels from the UK, US and Canada.

Modelling Projects

The second scientific objective will be addressed through numerical modelling studies designed to answer four questions:

How can we exploit data from the RAPID-WATCH arrays to obtain estimates of the MOC and related variables?

What do the observations from the RAPID-WATCH arrays and other sources tell us about the nature and causes of recent changes in the Atlantic Ocean?

What are the implications of RAPID-WATCH array data and other recent observations for estimates of the risk due to rapid change in the MOC?

Could we use RAPID-WATCH and other observations to help predict future changes in the MOC and climate?

RAPID Moored Instrument Rig WB2#8

This rig was deployed as part of the Western Boundary (WB) array of the MOCHA/RAPIDMOC project.

Deployment cruise

RV Oceanus cruise OC459-1

Recovery cruise

RV Knorr cruise KN200_4

The rig was anchored by railway wheels and kept erect by a 51" syntactic float at approximately 175 m depth and a 30" syntactic float at approximately 98 m depth, supplemented by groups of smaller floats distributed along the mooring.

Fixed Station Information

Station Name

Western Boundary Array

Category

Offshore area

Latitude

26° 37.50' N

Longitude

73° 37.50' W

Water depth below MSL

RAPIDMOC/MOCHA Western Boundary (WB) Array

The Western Boundary Array defines a box in which moorings were deployed at the western side of the North Atlantic as part of the RAPIDMOC project and the collaborative project Meridional Overturning Circulation and Heatflux Array (MOCHA). The box region has latitudinal limits of 26° N to 27.5° N and longitudinal limits of 69.5° W to 77.5° W. Moorings have occupied this region since 2004 and are typically deployed for 6 to 18 months.

Cruise data summary

During the cruises to service the moored array, a variety of data types are collected. The table below is a summary of these data. The number of CTD profiles performed on these cruises within the box region defined above is also included. Trans-Atlantic hydrographic CTD sections have also been performed since 2004 and are included in the table.

Related series for this Data Activity are presented in the table below. Further information can be found by following the appropriate links.

If you are interested in these series, please be aware we offer a multiple file download service. Should your credentials be insufficient for automatic download, the service also offers a referral to our Enquiries Officer who may be able to negotiate access.

Related series for this Fixed Station are presented in the table below. Further information can be found by following the appropriate links.

If you are interested in these series, please be aware we offer a multiple file download service. Should your credentials be insufficient for automatic download, the service also offers a referral to our Enquiries Officer who may be able to negotiate access.